Local attorney John Karoly has been back in the news recently, as he is headed to prison for 61/2 years for tax fraud, mail fraud and money laundering.

If you're Republican Congressman Charlie Dent, it's the perfect time to remind voters that your Democratic opponent, Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan, once agreed to settle a civil rights case filed by Karoly on behalf of the family of John Hirko Jr., a suspected drug dealer killed in a raid by city police in 1997.

City taxpayers are still paying for the $7.89 million settlement, which was financed using a 12-year bond issue. Both the shooting and lawsuit originated before Callahan took office in 2004.

Dent is sending robocalls--complete with a quote from Democratic city councilman and Callahan nemesis Mike Schweder calling it the "most stupid" decision anyone had ever made in his lifetime--into the Lehigh Valley-based Congressional district to point all this out.

Dent's main point: With the jury divided on the verdict, Callahan could have requested a new trial, forcing Karoly to decide whether to spend more money on a second set of hearings. Instead, he agreed to have the jury polled hoping the city would win outright. The jury was split 10-2, but in favor of the Hirko family.

UPDATE: Callahan's campaign ridiculed the Dent robocalls.

“Mayor Callahan is more than happy to put his record of fiscal responsibility and job creation up against Congressman Dent’s record of fiscal mismanagement and deficit spending in Washington," said Callahan campaign manager Justin Schall. "If this is the ‘most stupid’ decision the Congressman has ever seen, then he’s experiencing quite a bout of amnesia with regards to the seemingly unending string of Bush-Dent economic missteps that caused the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, including a blank check for Wall Street to pay for risky actions and abuses of big banks. These misleading negative attacks by Dent aren’t helping create jobs for families in the Valley, sadly it’s just more Washington games from a career insider.”